jbird

Once a person gets past all of the original art consuming their immediate and peripheral vision, they might over look the difference in the people doing this art. In my class or in my studio in general, after a short time of quiet observation, you easily could pick out any of these typical ceramic students. There is the humble veteran, the eager learner, and my favorite: the artsy-fartsy know it all.

Let’s begin with the eager learner. This student is interested in most art, and has some natural abilities with it. They obviously get hooked on ceramics (because it’s the coolest, duh!???!) more specifically the potter’s wheel. They learn how to wedge their clay, and find all the essential tools to begin. They learn how to center, open, pull and shape the clay, otherwise known as the C.O.P.S. method. They start making bowls like every other nebbie, until they get a lesson or two from the teacher who shows them how to pull vertically instead of horizontally. Next thing you know, this person is in and out of the studio every day trying to better themselves. Eventually they find themselves able to make just about any shape. A beautiful bottle or maybe a sexy little vase or possibly even a bulbously buxom bowl. Then the day comes when they stumble upon someone with an immense amount of knowledge and talent. It may be the teacher of the course or our next distinctive potter, the humble veteran.

This wise, usually older potter has been spinning game for a long time. This humble veteran goes about their business, day in and day out, doing what they do (producing uniform shapes like a china factory in China.) Typically this potter has a tool box next to their wheel with things an average potter would never think of apply to the wheel as a potters tool. For example; a cheese slicer for alterations or the advance technology found in a shop hot gun most readily used for helping to dry ones ceramics to help get that perfect shape. Mountains of ceramics form on their shelves like buildings. All done so beautifully well that a eager learner musters up the courage to ask them a quick question about something to do with ceramics in general, that turns into many questions about everything and anything under the sun. This humble veteran is glad to see the enthusiasm in this student. It is refreshing compared to the other kind of student there is, the know it all artsy-fartsy.

Okay, it would be a snap judgment, but after listening to this person talk for five minutes about what they used to do in their high school ceramics class, you long to see just how good this person says they are. They speak of making these elaborate creations on the potter’s wheel, and strangely enough they have trouble when it comes time to even center the clay. Centering the clay in ceramics is the foundation of all a potters work. If not done properly their vessels will be wobbly and tilted as a result of uneven ceramic walls. They end up getting a lot help from the instructor on the basics again, and struggle with learning them. Once the artsy-farsty re-learns their “skills” they find it their job to point out to others (most of who are doing fine on their own) what it is they are doing wrong. They have no place in doing this, and most people find it quiet annoying and funny at the same time (mostly the first). Taking advice on how to throw from someone who can only make bowls would be absurd. They hang out at the studio almost to look cool at times, and barely get anything accomplished. I think they are there for the perception that they think everyone will have of them. That they appear to be super cool for being so artistic and creative.

Spinning this up, I come to realize that everyone has a bit of each of these people in themselves. Hopefully a person could find the humility in their work that a veteran has, the urge and longing to learn new things and apply them to their work like the eager learner, and maybe a little of the “know it all” to know when not to say anything unlike the artsy-fartsy student.